Brenda Nunn, who lives on State Highway 76 about eight miles north of Lindsay, said she went outside and began watering the grass around her home when she heard about the approaching fire at 3 p.m.
A sheriff's deputy came by and told her to evacuate. Nunn said she couldn't even take her car; she left her home in a sheriff's car.
“The smoke was so heavy, I couldn't see the flame,” Nunn said. “I just left the hose running.”
Nunn said the last she heard, her house was OK, but the house behind hers was burned. She planned to stay with relatives Thursday night.
Authorities said those in the evacuated area were being sent to the Purcell Fire Department, where they would be given further instructions on where they could stay for the night.
In Choctaw, residents of evacuated homes waited outside a tire store.
"There wasn't time to get nothing," said Willie Bennett, 69, a retired mechanic.
Bennett was worried about three dogs he left at his house near Choctaw High School.
"Man, how did this get started?" he said.
Another evacuated Choctaw homeowner, Benny Workman, 65, said police came door to door asking people to leave.
"They came banging on the doors telling us to get the heck out of there," he said.
Workman said he grabbed valuables, documents, his dog and some dog food.
"The smoke was so thick," he said.
Three fires were burning out of control in Lincoln County, said Ben Springfield, deputy emergency managment director for the county.
A firefighter suffered major burns while battling a blaze and was taken to an Oklahoma City hospital, Chandler Emergency Management Director Larry Hicks said.
“We had one truck that got overrun,” Hicks said. “It's pretty severe.”
Residents of the Lincoln County town of Sparks, population 150, were told to evacuate their residences.
39° 